In a significant development, the Andhra Pradesh state high court on Tuesday gave three days’ time to the Jagan Mohan Reddy government to complete the talks with the state election commission to decide on the conduct of local body elections in the state.
A division bench of the state high court directed that senior officials of the state government of Principal Secretary rank to meet SEC Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar and hold discussion with him on the conduct of local polls in the state within three days.
Disposing of the government’s petition to stall the election process, the high court recalled its earlier orders stating that it should commence talks with the SEC.
“Within three days of receiving the order from the court, the government should send a delegation of three officers to the SEC for talks,” the court said.
The high court bench also directed the SEC to decide the venue of talks to be held with the government officials. It said the government should clearly point out the reasons for its objections to hold the elections to the local bodies.
It asked the SEC to explain to the government the need to expedite the election process for local bodies.
Last week, the high court ruled that the final decision on conducting the elections to local bodies in the state would be taken by the SEC after holding discussions with the Jagan government. The court asked the government to cooperate with the SEC.
The government should submit a report to the court on the discussions held with the SEC. The court said the officials discuss the issue with the SEC on Coronavirus vaccination.
